Tag: books

Book List 2018: April Update

~ K. Ashby ~ Leave a comment

As April ends, I thought I would offer a few comments on what I’ve read so far.*  The entire

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Reading List 2018  is available through the menu at the top of this page.

Want to know why I’ve assigned myself a list of books to read this year? This post explains all.

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, Bryan Stevenson — Highly Recommend
If you read only one book from this list, please let it be this memoir. Read it to learn about the problems in the American judicial system, problems that exploit and traumatize our most defenseless populations as well as their families, communities, and participants in that system. Read it for the inspiring memoir of one man’s service to the most vulnerable members of our society. Read it to recognize, as does the author, that we all need some measure of mercy in our lives.

Wuthering Heights (Penguin Classics), Emily Bronte — Recommend
It’s a classic novel. It’s dark and intense. The characters will rouse your emotions and try your patience. If you like quality historical fiction with a dark side, give it a try. If, like me, you read it in high school and hated it, give it one more chance. I’m glad I did. (Read more about that experience here.)

All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel, Anthony Doerr — Highly Recommend
“Meticulous craftsmanship” is my first thought when this book comes to mind. It’s a theme throughout the book and it’s a perfect way to describe Doerr’s WWII tale of a blind French girl and an unusually gifted German boy who eventually meet in occupied France. Each chapter is finely wrought. Characters are slowly, exquisitely developed. The story is relentlessly fascinating. If you’re skeptical of the accolades heaped upon this book, let me assure you: they’re well-deserved.

The Magician’s Elephant, Kate DiCamillo –Highly Recommend
I enjoyed reading aloud this middle-grade novel with my eight year-old and six year-old. It has a varied cast of distinctive, evolving characters, including an orphan boy and an unexpected elephant, both yearning for home. It’s a story of longings: for relationships and community; for forgiveness and redemption. It’s also a story of perseverance, compassion, and a little bit of magic.

Some Writer!: The Story of E. B. White (Ala Notable Children’s Books. All Ages), Melissa Sweet — Recommend
This middle-grade biography was a surprise addition to my reading list, a gift for my kids that I decided to “just thumb through” then kept reading. It’s a fully illustrated biography incorporating White’s childhood journals, letters, photos, and manuscripts as well as the author’s original collage art. White’s journey from a curious boy who loved words to beloved author of children’s stories is a pleasure to follow, especially when artistically embellished with such rich and varied primary source material.

Currently Reading: Macbeth, William Shakespeare; Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, Neil Postman;   The Green Ember (The Green Ember Series: Book 1), S.D. Smith;  Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More ?Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist, Karen Swallow-Prior; Acts (of the Apostles)

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My Life in France, by Julia Child

~ K. Ashby ~ Leave a comment

It’s a joy to recommend a good book. This one is light, yet inspiring, easy to pick up here and there, in the quiet moments.

 My Life in France is much more than an easy gift for the foodies in your life.  Julia Child’s memoir of her time in France is the story of her love affair with a country and its remarkable culinary tradition. This light and engaging read offers a glimpse of the inspiring passion of a woman who changed the way Americans thought about cooking.

For this reader, the details of classic French cookery are sometimes nauseating. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a friend to butter, cream, fat, and all those awful things that taste so delicious. But I tend to enjoy simply prepared vegetables and food that hasn’t been overly fussed about. Consider the following passage, a brief description of her three-days labor to create a “mammoth galantine de volaille”:

First you make a superb bouillon–from veal leg, feet, and bones–for poaching. Then you debone a nice plump four-pound chicken, and marinate the meat with finely ground pork and veal stripe in Cognac and truffles. Then you re-form the chicken, stuffing it with a nice row of truffles wrapped in farce and a fresh strip of pork fat, which you hope ends up in the center. You tie up this bundle and poach it in the delicious bouillon. Once it is cooked, you let it cool and then decorate it–I used green swirls of blanched leeks, red dots of pimiento, brown-black accents of sliced truffle, and yellow splashes of butter. The whole was then covered with beautiful clarified-bouillon jelly.

Call me pedestrian, but after reading that, all I want it is a fresh salad and a  glass of cool water.

But the charm of Child’s memoir is not the food–it’s fascinating, painstaking preparation or the toothsome result of all that meticulous effort– it’s her enthusiasm for her work. She pursues her beloved with relentless energy and curiosity. When evaluating the recipes that would eventually form part of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, she writes,

Working on soups, for instance, I made a soup a day chez Child. On the day for soupes aux choux, I consulted Simca’s recipe as well as the established recipes of Montagne, Larousse, Ali-Bab, and Curnonsky. I read through them all, then made the soup three different ways…my guinea pig, Paul, complimented the three soupes aux choux, but I wasn’t satisfied.

She is a perpetual student, a scientist, an evangelist, and at her story’s end she has converted her home country to the joy of cooking in the tradition of her beloved France.

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Unpacking Old Friends

~ K. Ashby ~ Leave a comment
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One of the pleasures of moving into a new home is tearing open boxes of books to rescue the favorites packed away for the duration of the move.  When driving cross country in a suburban packed with seven humans, space is precious. In fact, the only physical book I carried along on this recent journey was a pocket-sized bible that I tucked into my purse.

E-readers saved me. I had hours and hours of reading available with the press of a few buttons, and I am grateful that I was able to carry a virtual library in the palm of my hand.  Still, there’s nothing like a real, bound book.

I like the weight of hundreds of pages in my hands. I like thumbing back to reread a passage, or holding a place with my finger because I know I’ll want to experience a particular phrase one more time. I like the straight edges, firm covers, the sound of shifting pages, the mysterious fragrance that belongs only to books. My e-reader sustains me in difficult times, but it is a thin sensory experience when compared to the comfort of real books.

Wherever I’ve made my home, I’ve always kept a stack of good reads on my bedside table. It’s an optimistic volume of reading material. Some books lie unopened for weeks, but I like to know that they are there, whenever I want them.

This was the box that I  unpacked yesterday evening, my bed side table collection, packed away to declutter our last home for showing. I pulled out Patchett, Bonhoeffer and Lee, adding them to Dillard and Kingsolver, picked up for pennies at a library sale last week, and L’amour, gifted by my mother, who knows I have a fondness for his short stories. It was a joyful reunion, welcoming these old friends to my new home.

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